


Treehouse

by TheSwahn



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alcohol, Fluff, M/M, Marijuana, SO MUCH FLUFF, stupid dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 19:46:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2037702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSwahn/pseuds/TheSwahn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When they were just snotty kids with scraped knees and high pitched voices, Jean and Marco met under the big oak tree between their houses. Who knew that tree would lead to an unseparable friendship and so many other meetings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treehouse

**Author's Note:**

> Just a super fluffy jeanmarco one shot, because I needed some fluff in my life. 
> 
> I thought about adding a semi-smut scene, but thought that for the people who wanted only fluff, maybe I should leave it. Idk, what do you think? Please tell me in the comments if y'all want awkward teenager sex scene.

7 years old

Jean

It was late in the summer- only a couple of days until the start of school and Jean’s family had just moved to this town. He had been grumpy about it at first, because it was never fun to leave things behind, but once they arrived Jean wasn’t so mad anymore. Because their new neighborhood had a lot bigger yard to play in and there was this huge oak tree right between their house and their neighbor’s that would be perfect to build a treehouse in. 

It was day three, when Jean was running around in their garden, with his scrawny knees and slightly too big ears that his mother told him were adorable. He was currently zooming around with his model airplane, when he suddenly stopped in his track, when he stood in front of the oak tree.   
And there, under that tree a boy just as old as him, was sitting with his legs pulled up close to him and his forehead pressed to his knees. The boy was shaking slightly and when he heard some quiet sobs come from him, Jean suddenly felt sad.

“Why are you crying?” He asked as he came over to the boy, who’s head immediately snapped up. He had dark hair, parted in the middle, dark eyes and freckles spread over his nose and cheeks. He also had this big gap between his front teeth, that Jean would have thought was funny, but not in that moment, because he just looked so sad. 

“I-I fell down from the tree and ripped my shirt.” The boy said finally and held up his elbow, to show the hole in his sweater, the skin scraped and bloody. “It was all new, now my momma’s gonna yell at me!” 

“Why did you climb the tree?” Jean asked and crouched down in front of him. 

“B-Because I wanted to see who the new neighbors were.” He said and Jean immediately lit up. 

“Oh! I’m the new neighbor!” He said excitedly. The boy looked up at him, with brown, confused eyes. “I’m Jean, by the way! What’s your name?” 

Finally, the other boy smiled and wiped at his eyes. “John?” 

“Jean.” He corrected him with a small frown. 

“Oh. I’m Marco.” 

“Mako?” Jean repeated and now Marco pouted slightly. 

“Marco.” 

“Macco?” 

“No! It’s Marco!” 

Jean was having kind of a hard time pronouncing his name, so he decided he didn’t wanna talk about that anymore. “Anyway- do you have a boo boo, Mako?” He asked and Marco nodded, sniffling a little, as he looked at his elbow. 

“Do you want me to kiss it better?” 

He nodded and Jean leaned in and kissed the scrape on his elbow softly. 

Marco finally smiled and a soft pink shade colored his cheeks. 

“Thank you, but I don’t think I’m better yet.” He said shyly and smiled at Jean, who grinned back.

“Do you want me to kiss anywhere else?” 

Now Marco nodded enthusiastically and giggled. His happiness was already rubbing off on Jean. 

“Where?” He asked excitedly and now Marco blushed a bit more and then he lifted his hand (who’s knuckles, Jean noticed also had freckles) and pointed a finger to his lips.   
Jean blushed a little too now, but was still smiling. He put his knees on the grass in front of Marco, leaned in and softly pecked a small kiss to his lips. 

“Better?” He asked. Marco giggled and nodded happily.

Ever since then, Jean and Marco became best friends.  
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9 ½ years old

Jean

Their dads had already helped them to start making the treehouse and so far, it had a floor, one wall and a ladder. Though right now, Jean and Marco wasn’t working on the treehouse. It was raining, the droplets dripping through the tree’s green leafs, but that meant they had to play inside. Not that either of them minded, the two of them had such lively fantasies that they could play anywhere. 

Today, they were in Marco’s room and were playing dress up. Marco was wearing his sister’s princess dress and had done Jean’s hair up all nice with clips and bows and everything they could find. Jean had managed to nick some of his mom’s make up and right now, he was smooshing make up all over Marco’s face with the most serious expression ever. 

“Are you done soon? Why do I have to wear all this?” Marco asked impatient. 

“Because, Marco! If you’re gonna be the princess, you gotta look pretty!” Jean insisted. (He had been so proud when he finally managed to pronounce Marco’s name right.)

“But I’m already pretty.” Marco giggled and Jean pouted. 

“Just hold still! I’m almost done ok?” 

Not long after, Jean finished his masterpiece but smooshing way too much blush on him, making Marco’s cheeks almost completely red.

“There!” He said triumphantly and Marco finally opened his dark brown eyes.

“Do I look pretty?” He asked, batting his eyelashes and Jean grinned widely. 

“Super pretty!” 

Marco giggled and fake swooned, falling back on the pillows. Marco’s dog, a golden retriever named Rose was playing the dragon and when he “fell down” she hurriedly started licking his face to check if he was ok. 

“Oh no! The dragon has caught me! Someone help me!” He said dramatically, while laughing from the tickling of Rose’s wet tongue. 

“I’ll save you, princess!” Jean said and with a pillow as his shield and a rolled up newspaper as his sword, he “attacked” Rose, by poking her in the side. She gave a small playful bark and immediately attacked Jean instead and covered his face with lots of wet puppy kisses. Jean laughed and squirmed on the floor as he tried to get away from Rose and when he finally managed to sit up and get her to lie down, he shuffled over to Marco. 

“Princess! Are you ok?” 

Marco was lying completely still on the pillows, his eyes closed and hands folded over his chest, though he had a small playful smile on his lips. 

“Oh no, the princess isn’t moving! You’re not dead are you?” Jean asked, just to be sure, but Marco didn’t answer. 

“How can I save you..?” 

Still no answer. Jean thought about it for a while, and then he suddenly remembered their very first meeting and his face lit up. 

“I know! A true love’s kiss!” He triumphed and then leaned down slowly to press his lips softly to Marco’s. Finally, he fluttered his dark eyelashes open and Jean threw his arms around him in a hug. 

“Princess! You’re alive!” 

Marco laughed and hugged him back.

“You saved me, brave knight!” 

They were laughing and rolling around in the pillows, covering each other’s faces with kisses, when suddenly the door opened. 

“Boys! What are you doing?” Jean’s mother said, who had probably come to pick him up for dinner. 

“We were just playing, momma..” Jean whimpered, sitting up, because for some reason she sounded.. not angry, but strict and Jean didn’t know what he had done. 

“Is that my make up!?” 

Now Jean knew what he had done and he hung his head in surrender. 

“S-Sorry momma..” 

“Mrs. Kishtain, Jean just wanted to make me pretty..” Marco tried to help, knowing he would probably get in trouble. Jean’s mother calmly explained to them that it was fine to make each other pretty, but Jean shouldn’t have taken her make up, because now it was ruined and she had to buy more. They both said sorry and hung their heads with guilt. When she told Jean that he had to come home, he pouted, because he wanted to stay longer and play with Marco, but it was getting late and he had to eat dinner. 

But when they were in the hallway of their own house, something unexpected happened. Before they went into the house, Jean’s mother halted him and knelt down in front of him. She sighed softly, before she said in a soft, but stern voice and it scared him a little. 

“Jean, you shouldn’t kiss boys.” She said and Jean tilted his head, confused.

“Why not?” 

“Because people will think you are.. different.” 

“But isn’t everyone different?” 

“Yes, but some people might not like the kind of different they will think about you. And someone might be mean to you. And mommy doesn’t want that to happen, do you understand?” 

Jean just blinked at her in confusion, because he didn’t really understand. Why would people be mean to him for kissing boys? His mother sighed and smiled softly, before she kissed his nose. 

“Come on. Let’s just go eat dinner.” 

For the first time in his life, Jean learned that compared to other people he wasn’t normal and he didn’t understand why.  
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11 years old

Marco

It was cold. It was late in September and a little too chilly to sit in the treehouse much. Jean’s ears had gotten a bit smaller (or his head had caught up with their size) and he had lost a front tooth. Marco had gotten a lot taller and his tooth gap had gotten smaller. 

It was right before school ended and Jean and Eren had started fighting about something (again) in the last break, but Marco didn’t know what because he was trading pokemon cards with Armin, so hadn’t noticed what was going on. He only noticed when Jean screamed “EREN, YOU JERK!” and stormed off. The teachers were freaking out. Everyone was looking for Jean and were really worried to where he had gone, but Marco knew. Marco knew where he had gone. There was only one place Jean went when he was really upset. 

Like a good boy, Marco waited till school was over, before he walked home and went right to the treehouse. The leafs on the tree were red and orange, some of them falling gently and a gust of wind rustled up Marco’s dark hair. He shivered and pulled his jacket closer round himself, before he climbed the ladder and poked his head through the entrance. And surely enough, there he was, sitting in a corner of the small space, pouting with his brows furrowed and his lip sticking out. 

“Everyone is looking for you, Jean.” Marco said cautiously, as he moved to sit next to him. His best idiot of a best friend didn’t answer at first, and Marco just waited. Eventually, Jean looked out the square hole in the wall they had for window and muttered: 

“Girls are gross.” 

“I know.” Marco agreed. “Did they do something to you?” 

Jean went quiet again for a while and Marco had to bump his shoulder. 

“Come on, mr. grumpy pants! Tell me what’s up.” 

“Sasha and Annie kissed me.” 

“And..?” Marco pressed on. 

“And I didn’t want to, because girls are gross and girly and ew. And then Eren called me a wuss and said that I wasn’t cool if I didn’t kiss at least one girl, but I didn’t wanna.”   
Marco listened to his friend in silence, because from the look of the glossy tears in his tawny eyes, this really upset him. 

“I’d rather kiss boys. Because boys are cool and funny and great and girls are gross. But my mom says it’s not normal for boys to kiss boys. “ He paused again and now Marco was watching him with wonder in his eyes, because he felt the exact same thing. Then Jean sniffled. 

“Am I weird for wanting to kiss boys, Marco? Am I a freak?” 

Marco laughed. Jean stared at him with horrified eyes, but he just had to laugh, because it sounded so silly to him. 

“You’re not a freak, Jean!” He said and messed up his friend’s sandy blonde hair. “I don’t think it’s weird. I like to kiss boys too.” 

“Really?” Jean asked with big eyes and Marco laughed again.

“Yeah!” 

Jean smiled widely at that and pulled his scrawny knees to his chest, to hide the blushing in his cheeks. Marco knew what would cheer him up. Their special thing that always made the other in a better mood if he was upset. The thing they had done ever since they were seven years old and Jean found him under the oak tree, so he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Jean’s lips. 

“Do you feel better now?” He asked. 

Jean’s cheeks were even hotter than before, colored a fresh red, but he was smiling, so Marco knew he wasn’t mad. And then, when Jean nodded shortly, he knew that he would be ok.  
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

13 years old

Marco

Whoever taught Jean the word “fuck” made a terrible mistake, because he used it way more than he actually should. 

It was late October, almost time for Halloween and it was actually way too cold to be out in the treehouse, but they didn’t care, because it was the only place where they could be alone. The tree had lost all its leafs, the bare branches reaching up like fingers towards the pale October sun. 

Jean and Marco was huddled together, covered in blankets and thick jackets and Jean was bragging about his new haircut. 

“Doesn’t it look cool as fuck?” He said, admiring his reflection in a small mirror. 

“Jean!” Marco gasped in shock. “You shouldn’t say that!” 

“What? Fuck? Why not?” 

“Because it’s a bad word!” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Jean waved him off. “But doesn’t it look cool at fuck?” 

Marco just sighed, giving up on trying to make him stop saying the f word. 

“It looks stupid.” 

“You’re just jealous.” 

“Whatever. Can we go inside now? It’s freezing!” 

“No, I gotta show you something!” 

Marco groaned and rolled his eyes. “But I’m cold!” 

“Then come here, if you’re so cold!” Jean said and opened up his blankets. Marco blushed slightly, but crawled closer and Jean’s warmth actually helped, as he wrapped the blankets around them. 

“Thanks, Jean. Now what did you want to show me?” 

“Oh yeah!” Jean scooted over to the window and Marco had no choice but to follow, since Jean’s arms were around him. 

“Look!” He said, pointing to the house across the street. Marco looked at where he was pointing, and saw nothing. Just an empty street. 

“What?” 

“Wait! They usually come out around this time.” 

“Who? Jean, what’re you-“

“Just wait and see!” He interrupted him and Marco rolled his eyes. They stared at the house’s porch and surely enough, just like he said, after a while, to men came out. One was very short, with dark hair, but looked pretty scary and the other was really tall and blonde. Marco noticed that they were holding hands and when they turned towards each other and kissed, both him and Jean looked away and grimaced, saying “Ew!” Because kissing was gross, no matter what. 

“Ew, Jean did you just want me to see them kiss?” 

“But they’re men!” Jean claimed and Marco suddenly noticed how excited, but at the same time confused he looked. 

“So? Boys can kiss each other too.” 

“But Marco, I think I heard my parents say that they were married!” 

Marco looked to the two men, confused as to why Jean found this so weird, because to him, they looked just like his mom and dad. Just as gross, but just as happy, only it was like a dad and a dad instead. 

“So?” He said and finally Jean looked away from the couple. He looked down at his hands and Marco could have sworn he was blushing a little.

“I.. I didn’t know that was possible.” 

“What, for two men to get married?” 

“Yeah.” 

“My mom said that boys can marry boys and girls can marry girls. It’s just not that normal.” 

“So it’s not normal for two boys to marry?”

“Well…” Marco didn’t know what to say at first and watched as the couple started walking down the street. “They look pretty normal to me… And they look just as lovey-dovey and gross as my mom and dad.” 

“Yeah, they do, don’t they?” Jean chimed in, and he was smiling now, which made Marco smile too. 

That was the first time in his life, that Marco fantasized about what it would be like to marry another boy. Specifically Jean.   
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

15 years old

Jean

Puberty was a horrible, horrible enemy. It was both amazing and horrifying how so many different things could change about Jean’s body at once and he had a hard time keeping up. Hair had started growing in weird places, his voice was changing, but the hormones… oh fuck the hormones. It was his worst enemy. It felt like everything turned him on and he couldn’t go anywhere without seeing Mikasa’s beautiful hair and her perfect body, or Eren’s tight ass, Bertholdt’s long fingers or Sasha’s curves… Everything was so fucking confusing and everything was hot. But Marco… 

Marco was simultaneously the worst and the best thing that could happen to him. Jean had grown taller, but he was lanky, with sharp shoulders and a pointy face. Marco was even taller than him, with those incredible long-ass legs and his wide set shoulder and big hands and his gorgeous eyes and adorable freckles and jesus Christ that boy was attractive. 

And because of that, Jean didn’t hang with him as much as he used to. Like they were still friends and all, but he didn’t cling to him like when they were kids. But it was ok, because Marco was friends with everyone, so at least he wasn’t lonely. Marco was the kind of guy who everyone liked, because it was just impossible to not like him. 

So yeah.. Hormones were ranging, Jean was probably crushing on his best friend and he had no privacy, because his mother tended to burst into his room without knocking, when he was reading porn mags under his covers. 

So his only sanctuary was the damn treehouse. 

It was spring again, the snow had just melted and green spuds had started popping from the tree’s branches. And Jean was sitting in the small space of the old treehouse, waiting for Marco. 

“Jean?” A familiar voice said when he finally popped his head through the opening and settled himself in the small space next to Jean. 

“What did you want to talk about? Why are we even here?” 

“It was the only place we wouldn’t be disturbed, ok?” Jean explained and Marco looked questionably at him, with one eyebrow raised. 

“Ok, so..?” 

Jean took a deep breath and blushed slightly.

“Ok, so… I talked to Mr. Smith.” Their neighbors had actually turned out to work in their school, but they just haven’t seen them in elementary, since they worked in high school. Erwin Smith was a P.E teacher and the coach of the football team and Levi Smith was one of the counselors. He might not be much of a people person, but apparently he had a dark past, so he knew how to help struggling teens and he was pretty intimidating, so he was able to handle the “problem kids”. 

“Which one of them?” Marco asked.

“Levi.”

“You went to the counselor? Why?” 

“Well uh…” Suddenly Jean was really self-conscious and he rubbed his neck awkwardly, his cheeks tinted red. Marco smiled that soft, friendly smile and put a comforting hand on his back. 

“It’s ok Jean, you can tell me.” 

“Right, well… I was curious. About… gay stuff.” 

At that, Marco’s eyes widened slightly and he blinked at him. But he didn’t look shocked or weirded out, just a little surprised. 

“Oh. Are you…?” 

“I don’t know! I don’t know yet!” 

“Ok! Well, what did Levi say?”   
“Well, he explained some stuff about different sexualities and stuff and…” He trailed off. 

“And?” 

“And since I was curious, he.. he lent me these.” Jean fished something out of his backpack and just slapped some magazines of gay porn right in front of them. Marco gasped in shock. 

“The counselor gave you these?!” 

“Yeah, but you can’t tell anyone! He only gave them to me because he’s our neighbor and have known me for a long time and felt sorry for me. If they find out I got them from him, he might get fired. And he’d kill me. And my parents would kill me. And I’d just be dead ok?” Jean looked at him, dead serious and Marco nodded in understanding. 

“Ok, ok, I understand! I won’t tell anyone.”

“Promise?”

“I promise! Geesh..” 

“Ok, so… check this out.” Jean picked up one of the magazines and opened it to a random page, showing Marco the images. Marco just stared at it in shock, with his mouth hanging slightly open, but he didn’t look horrified or anything. He actually looked… kind of fascinated? Jean just waited in silence, for him so say something, not daring to break it himself. Finally, after an agonizingly long moment, Marco stuttered:

“I-I didn’t know you could even do that…” 

Jean held back the urge to snicker, but he had only just found out about it himself after all. 

“How can that feel good? How does it even fit?” At that, Jean cleared his throat and felt his cheeks get just a little bit hotter. 

“Uh.. do you want me to tell you?” 

There was a pause. They stared at each other, Jean nervous and Marco still a little shocked. After a small pause, Marco nodded, his eyes flickering over to the porn in front of him and Jean could tell that he was at least a little curious. 

“Yeah.. I want to know.” He said finally. 

Jean cleared his throat, before he spoke. “Ok, well Levi explained to me and I did a little research on the internet and.. It hurts. It will really hurt and be uncomfortable at first, but apparently it can cause ‘pleasure unlike any other’.” He explained, pretty much quoting what he had read on the internet. 

“What? Really?” Marco said and he actually looked fascinated. 

“Yeah. Have you ever heard of the prostate?” 

“Well, yeah. No more than we learn in health class though.”

“They only taught us about male and female anatomy and the dangers of prostate cancer.” Jean said, rolling his eyes. “What they didn’t tell you, is that if you stick something in your ass and stimulate the prostate, it’s the best fucking thing ever.” 

When he finished explaining, Marco was silent, looking like he considered it. The pause was way too long for comfort and Jean desperately thought ‘say something dude!’ so he blurted out:

“I tried it.” 

Marco’s eyes widened even more. 

“What-“

“My fingers.” 

“…….” Marco swallowed hard. “Did it feel good?” 

“Honestly? It was really fucking weird at first, I mean I was just about to give up, but then I hit the fucking prostate…” Jean closed his eyes from the memory and pulled his legs a little more together. “And it was the best fucking thing I’ve ever felt.” 

“Gosh… I’ve never even kissed anyone before.” Marco muttered and seemed to push his own legs a little closer together as well. Oh God he was so cute. Jean had just used the word ‘fuck’ three times in one sentence and Marco went with ‘gosh’. He just had to chuckle a little. 

“Sure you have. You’ve kissed me plenty of times!” He said jokingly and lightly bumped him in the shoulder. 

Marco frowned. “We were kids, that doesn’t count.” 

A sudden idea flashed through Jean’s mind and he just hoped it wouldn’t ruin everything. 

“If you want, we could, you know… We could kiss. Like with tongue and stuff. Only if you want to though!” The truth was, he had never really French kissed anyone either. Like he had kissed a couple of girls and stuff, but never really French kissed. 

“Okay.” 

Marco’s answer shocked the hell out of him and he stared at him, wondering if it was a joke or not. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah.” 

He said it so calmly, so confident that he wanted to kiss Jean with tongue and suddenly Jean was the nervous, flustered virgin, who blushed and swallowed hard. But he nodded nevertheless and tried to calm down his heartbeat, as he placed a hand on his crush’s cheek and leaned in to press their lips together. He would never expected Marco’s eagerness and let out a small whimper, when he just went for it! But he surely didn’t protest, because kissing Marco like this was the best thing to ever have happened to him in his life. It wasn’t like when they were kids and kissed each other for comfort or when they played princess and knight, this was real. This was all of their emotions and desires poured into each other and by the time their mouths opened, and their tongues glided over together, Jean was already breathless. And when Marco laced his fingers into the blonde of his hair and tugged slightly… oh God. This was bad. This was very, very bad. Before he could get a full on boner (he was already half-hard) Jean pulled back and panted slightly against Marco’s lips. Marco… was trembling. His eyes glaced over with this incredible desire and realization, like he had just come to terms with something. 

“Th-that was really good..” He whispered. 

“Yeah…” Jean whispered back. 

Yeah… He was fucked. 

Jean was really, really fucked.   
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16 years old

Marco

Things had been so weird since their make out session in the treehouse. When Marco had finally realized that yeah, he was probably gay and probably had been all along and yeah… he was in love with his best friend. Just when he had realized, Jean had started acting weird. He started talking to him less and less, made up excuses for not hanging out and sometimes he wouldn’t even meet his eyes. It was so damn confusing and Marco didn’t understand what he had done wrong. Was it his fault for kissing him that time in the treehouse? But Jean was the one who offered.. Jean was the one who had realized he was probably gay or at least bi before Marco and suggested that they kissed. So why? Why was he ignoring him? It was all so damn confusing and it hurt and Marco just wanted his best friend back, more than anything in the world. Sometimes it hurt so much, he cried alone in his room, where no one could see him. 

Jean had started dating Mikasa at some point, because everyone knew he was crazy about her and she had decided to give him a chance. “Guess he’s bi, then” Marco had thought at some point, but he couldn’t help being a little jealous of her. Or very jealous. Because he was falling more and more in love with that stupid jerk every day and they were falling further and further apart. Jean who was so amazing and beautiful and inspiring and cool. Jean who always made him feel better when they grew up. Jean who always made him happy and recently miserable at the same time and who always gave him happy, bubbly, stupid butterflies, ever since the first time he kissed him under that damn oak tree when they were seven. 

He slowly came to the realization that he had probably always loved him. Ever since they first met and that was so much more painful, because all he could do was watch as he put his arm around her shoulders. All he could do was to cover his eyes, when he kissed her and every time they walked away together, it felt like a small part of him died a little.   
Still he smiled. Still, Marco laughed and smiled and was polite with everyone. And everyone thought he was completely ok. No one ever suspected that he was actually miserable.

Why.

Why couldn’t he fall in love with someone else?

Why couldn’t he get over him. 

It was so unfair. 

Then one day, something unexpected happened. It was Friday, Eren had thrown a party. Marco had gone, mostly because everyone urged him to and because it was a good distraction. It was about four months since Jean and Mikasa had started going out and almost a year since their treehouse incident. The party was ok and Marco was just talking with his friends, trying to distract himself from his thoughts, when he overheard people asking where Jean was. No one knew. Eren asked Mikasa and she said he had gone home, but when they called his house, he wasn’t at home. No one knew where he was and people were starting to get scared, so Marco said he would go look for him and told them that since they lived so close to each other, there was a good chance he would see him around the neighborhood. 

But Marco knew. He knew where Jean was when he was upset, where no one else knew to look. 

And surely enough, when he approached the big oak tree between their two houses, there he was, sitting against the tree trunk, with his knees pressed to his chest, much like the position Marco had been in when they first met.   
It was January, Marco’s least favorite month, because it was still winter. Cold and gray, but without the joys of Christmas and too early for the warmness of spring. The tree was still naked of leafs and the air was chilly. He could see that Jean’s body was shaking slightly, probably shivering from the cold, but then he noticed- he was sobbing. Fear and worry washed through him right away and he hurried to his side, falling to his knees in front of him. 

“Jean..” He said carefully and hesitantly put a hand on one of his knees. “Jean, what’s wrong?”   
Jean sniffled in silence for a moment. Normally he hated crying in front of people, but he was aware of his presence, so Marco knew that right now he was allowing him to see him cry, if not maybe even wanting him to. 

“I broke up with Mikasa.” He muttered finally, his voice broken. 

“Oh my gosh Jean, I’m so sorry. I-“

“But that’s not the reason I’m upset.” He interrupted. Marco blinked again, pausing as he thought of the right thing to say. His hand was completely still on Jean’s knee and he just listened to his quiet sobs, before he said: 

“Ok, well.. Do you want to tell me why you’re upset? You don’t have to of course.” 

“No, I.. It’s about time I did.” Jean muttered and finally, he looked up and angrily wiped away his tears. He took a shaky breath and then sighed, like he just gave up. Like whatever the outcome didn’t matter anymore. Marco just waited patiently. 

“I’m upset, because…” He started and Marco squeezed his knee lightly and tried to smile reassuringly. 

“Because… I’m in love with someone else.” He was slightly surprised at that and by the fact he said ‘in love’ and not just ‘like’. Before Marco could say anything, however, he hurriedly continued. 

“It’s you, Marco. It’s you, ok? It’s always been you. Oh God, I finally said it. Shit. I shouldn’t have said it. You probably-“

Marco stopped him with a hand on his lips, before he could ramble anything else and ruin everything. 

“I’m in love with you too.” He murmured, blushing slightly, but kept his eyes on his best friend who had just poured his heart out to him. Jean looked shocked. Like he didn’t believe it at first. He just sat there with his mouth opening and closing like a fish or something, in search for words. It made Marco worried he had said the wrong thing, or if he hadn’t heard him, or if he got the wrong idea or something, so he went on. 

“I realized I was in love with you, that day we kissed in the treehouse. And then I realized I probably had been before that. That I probably fell in love with you the first day I met you, even though I was only seven. And I- I didn’t know what to do! It was all so scary and confusing and-“  
He was cut off, when Jean pulled his face towards him and kissed him firmly, exactly like he had done that first time. Marco hadn’t even realized that tears had welled up in his eyes, and before he knew it, he wrapped his arms around Jean’s shoulders and leaned into him, moving against his lips. When Jean pulled him closer by the waist he let out a shuddering gasp into his mouth, before he reassumed kissing him. His eyes were stinging, his heart was pounding so hard, he thought it would burst, but it felt so amazingly good to finally kiss him again after all these months, there in the cold, underneath their beloved oak tree. 

When he finally pulled back, gasping for breath, Jean looked at him- just looked at him for a long while, his eyes loving and admiring and so happy. And then Jean laughed. He just laughed, chuckling lightly and it smitted over on Marco and he started laughing too. When the laughter and giddiness finally died down a little, Jean sighed and rested their foreheads together. 

“I guess we’re in love then.” He murmured. Marco laughed lightly once and kissed the tip of his nose. 

“I guess so.”   
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

17 years old

Jean and Marco

Being 17 is hard enough as it is. That comes with all the hormones and drama and the whole transition from youth to adulthood thing. So it’s only a given that being gay in high school was even harder. Of course they knew that their friends would be ok with it, and it wasn’t like their school was really judgmental or anything, most of the people were pretty cool. Sure there were some jerks, but no one they couldn’t handle. Still Jean and Marco decided to keep it a secret for now, just to avoid the stress. But even if they weren’t out yet, there was still the summer. Then they could be together at all times and it was safe to say that those days were probably the best times in their lives.   
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Their tree felt just as big as when they were kids, when they carved their initials into the trunk. Jean had thought it was stupid, but Marco had insisted, because that was what all couples did and they had to be stupid and cliché while they were still young. The branches of the big tree reached out towards both of their houses as if connecting them, like crooked arms stretching up toward the sky. The sunlight came through the green leafs, causing the lights to dance over Marco’s freckles and Jean just had to kiss him. Only a brief brush over his lips that caused Marco’s cheeks to fill with this adorable pink color.   
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Laughter carried on the summer breeze like music, as Jean rode his bicycle down the small road, with Marco sitting on the back. His arms were around him, his cheek pressed against Jean’s back and they both laughed as they rushed through the trees to the lake a little outside town. The air was hot, carrying the scent of grass and flowers.

By the time they got there, the sun was already setting, slowly sinking down into the horizon. The lake was covered in a delicious orange light that brought out the warm color in Marco’s brown hair and the gold in Jean’s eyes. Dressed only in their swimming trunks, Jean and Marco was about jump into the water, but Jean was a pussy and stalled as long as possible. So Marco pushed him in. Jean cursed loudly and swore he was going to kill Marco, but instead they just swam around each other, laughing and occasionally splashing in each other’s faces. 

Finally, Jean managed to pull Marco into his arms, when the water was shallow enough to stand. They stood there for a while, panting slightly from chasing each other and they looked into each other’s eyes. Marco put his hands on Jean’s shoulders and watched as water drops sailed down his bare chest, before he looked back to his eyes. In that moment, Jean’s eyes were the same color as the sky, he thought. This warm, gold color, with almost a hint of orange. They were just a little darker, that made them this hazel brown and Marco had never seen anything more beautiful in his life.

Jean’s hands were around his boyfriend’s waist and he noticed how Marco had gotten even more freckles over the summer. He loved every single one of Marco’s freckles and he wanted to kiss all of them. Realizing that was impossible however (he had tried), he settled on kissing his cute button nose and Marco blushed just enough to look even cuter. Jean smiled when he brushed his fingertips over Marco’s hot cheek. Though this time it wasn’t because he was amused or because he wanted to tease him... but because he realized how much he truly loved this stupid dork called Marco Bodt. 

They met halfway when they kissed, both leaning in at the same time. The kiss was soft against their lips, but when Marco grabbed the back of Jean’s head and pushed him further in, Jean inhaled sharply in through his nose and pulled Marco’s waist closer. 

Their cold bodies shivered in the water, but with their chests pressed so close together, neither of them noticed, because their body heat kept each other warm. Their lips kept moving against each other, smooth and in perfect synchronization. Have you ever felt so overly happy that it feels like you’re heart just overflows with this warm feeling and you don’t know what to do with yourself? That was what both of them were feeling now and when they pulled back, Marco was a little shocked to see Jean had tears in his eyes. 

“J-Jean? Are you crying?” 

When he realized, Jean laughed airily and wiped over his eyes.

“I’m just happy.” He explained and if Marco didn’t have tears in his eyes before, he definitely did now.   
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“He loves me... He loves me not... He loves me… He loves me not…” 

Jean felt so stupid as he picked the petals off the daisy. It was just something to kill time with while he sat under the tree, waiting for Marco, he told himself, but he still kind of wanted to know the results. He frowned a bit, when he realized the last petal would end at “he loves me not” ,but suddenly someone came up from behind him and plucked it off. 

“He loves you.” Marco said and kissed his cheek.

Jean tried to ignore the blush on his cheeks as he turned around to kiss him back.   
___________________________________________________________________

The weekend, two weeks before they started school again, Eren and Mikasa had a party. Even though Eren and Jean almost always got in a fight and it was a bit awkward with his former crush on Mikasa, it was pretty cool when he was with Marco. With Marco he forgot about the whole awkward deal with Mikasa and distracted himself from Eren. Mikasa was cool though. She assured him everything was cool between them and that she had pretty much forgotten the whole thing. And Marco was a fucking angel. Or Jesus. Freckled Jesus. Even though they weren’t out yet, he was an expert at both comforting Jean when he was drunk and at the same time not letting anyone get suspicious.   
When they had all drunk quite a bit and were hanging in the livingroom, Sasha suddenly yelled:

“OH! I know, let’s play truth or dare!” 

“Seriously? How old are we, 14?” Eren said and for once Jean agreed with him. But Sasha didn’t back down. 

“What’s the matter Eren? Are you too chickenshit to do any dares?” 

“What the hell?! Fine. If you want to play truth or dare so bad, let’s fucking do it.” 

And so they all gathered in a circle on the floor with Sasha starting the game. 

“Eren, truth or dare?” 

Eren of course picked dare and Sasha dared him to down his bottle in five seconds, to which he scoffed and did so. Next, Eren asked Armin who picked dare. 

“I dare you to cross-dress.” He said with a smirk and Armin blushed as everyone laughed. 

“Eh? Why?!” 

“What? You’d look totally hot in one.” Eren said with a shrug. 

“But I don’t even have a dress..” Armin tried to dig his way out, but unlucky for him, Mikasa butted in:

“You can borrow one of mine.” 

He blushed more, but after everyone started pressuring him into doing it, he finally surrendered. 

“Fine! Ok, fine, I’ll do it.” 

“Hold up.” Ymir interrupted. “If you’re gonna cross-dress, you gotta do it properly. Don’t just put on a dress and expect to get away with it.” 

“Agreed.” Eren said with an even wider smirk. 

“Oh, I know! I can do your make-up!” Christa suggested. 

“And I can do your hair!” Sasha chimed in. 

“Fine!” Armin surrendered, throwing his arms in the air. “Fine, do whatever you want with me! I don’t even care anymore.” 

And so Armin and pretty much all the girls, except from Ymir and Annie disappeared to Mikasa’s room to give him a makeover. When they came back, pretty much all of their jaws dropped, while the girls giggled behind him. He was wearing a dark dress with a flower pattern, that had a pretty fluffy skirt and grey stockings. He even had high heels. Sasha had fixed his hair with two braids on each side that went together in a single braid at the back of his head. Christa had done his make-up perfectly so he almost looked exactly like a girl and in that moment Armin probably made everyone in the room question their sexuality at least a little bit. 

“Damn.. you really did go all out.” Ymir commented first. 

“Do I look good?” Armin said in a joking tone and made a twirl. He actually seemed to enjoy this. 

“You look really pretty, Armin!” Marco spoke and smiled brightly. 

“Yeah, I gotta hand it to you Armin. You look damn fuckable in drag.” Jean added not so elegantly and Marco slapped his arm. But Armin just laughed and sat back down in the circle next to Eren and Jean swore he could see him shift uncomfortably. 

When everyone had managed to pull their eyes away from Armin, he asked Christa who picked truth and he just went with a standard “tell a secret.” They were all shocked to learn that Christa went to school without wearing underwear one time. Next, she asked Sasha if she and Connie had a thing going on, to which they both blushed deep red and refused repeatedly, though they stuttered the entire time. 

Finally, when they had got over the embarrassment and people gave up on getting it out them, since they kept refusing, Sasha asked Jean. 

Jean shrugged and sipped his drink. “Dare.” 

“I dare you to make out with Marco.” 

The entire room went quiet and stared at them. Both Jean and Marco stiffened and their eyes widened. He could feel his palms getting sweaty and his heartbeat going faster. 

“W-what? Why?” He stuttered and Eren, that asshole grinned widely. 

“What, are you too scared?” 

Jean didn’t even have time to get mad at him, as he tried to stutter an explanation. 

“I-I just don’t know if Marco would be comfortable with it and all…” He swallowed hard and glanced to Marco, who stared back at him just as horrified. 

“Y-Yeah! W-We probably shouldn’t..” 

“Bullshit!” Ymir interrupted. “You’re not getting out of this one. We’re gonna keep bugging you, until you do it.” 

Jean looked panicked to Marco at a loss of what to do. “Just do it quick..” Marco whispered and Jean nodded, swallowing nervously. The tension was incredible as everyone stared at them and time seemed to be moving in slow motion as Jean put his hand on Marco’s cheek and slowly moved in. Finally they closed their eyes and their lips met and it was like time stopped. It might have been the alcohol making his brain fuzzy or it might have been the fact that every time he kissed Marco, the world seemed to stop, but for a moment he forgot about everyone watching them. And so it seemed, did Marco too. He inhaled sharply through his nose and pressed himself even closer to Jean, his fingers brushing over his the short undercut in his neck. When he opened his mouth and their tongues glided together Jean actually let out a small noise and lost himself in the feeling. He completely surrendered to Marco’s touch, his smooth hands, his soft lips, his warm tongue… and if it hadn’t been for his freckled Jesus self-control, he wouldn’t have been able to pull away. They stared into each other’s eyes, panting slightly, the other people completely forgotten. 

“Wow.” Reiner was the first one to break the silence. “So uh… are you two dating or something?” 

Finally they were snapped back to reality and Jean’s face burned so hot he didn’t know what else to do than to press his forehead to his knees and hide his face with his arms.   
“N-NO!” Marco (bless him) desperately tried to deny. “I-It’s not like that! We just.. I just… we didn’t…” 

A murmur went through the room as everyone started talking about how much bullshit that was and tried to talk poor Marco into admitting it. He didn’t know what did it and it was probably selfish of him to make the decision on his own, but finally Jean had enough. He sighed as he looked back up and said calmly:

“Yeah, we are. We’ve been dating for almost a year now.” 

Everyone shut up and stared at him. Marco looked at him like Jean had lost his mind. 

“I knew it.” Mikasa muttered sipping her beer and Jean shot a shocked glance her way. 

“You knew?!”   
“Oh come on, Jean... I knew something was up when we dated and you always turned down sex. My suspicions were kind of confirmed when I always caught you staring at him.” 

Jean once more had to hide his face. 

“I can’t fucking believe this!” 

“Agreed.” Eren commented, though it was mostly from the mental image of Jean Kirschtein having sex with his sister and he was kinda grateful he turned her down. 

“Well I mean… Ever since kindergarten you two have been exceptionally close. I always thought it weird when you didn’t talk for a while that time in our junior year. Ever since then you’ve been practically inseparable.” Armin said and Marco blushed just as much as Jean and looked down to the floor, shielding his face with his hands. 

“Plus, you always purposely avoid looking at each other in the locker rooms and look anywhere else.” Reiner’s deep voice added. 

“Oh my God you’re right! I never thought about that..” Connie agreed. 

“Not only that, but I’ve never seen anyone look as happy as the two of you when you’re looking at each other and think no one can see you.” Christa’s small voice added and Ymir continued:

“Fuck that, they look like they’re ready to bone any minute!”

“If you didn’t want anyone knowing, maybe you shouldn’t have spent the entire summer together.” Annie muttered quietly. 

“Oh my GOD did all of you know?!” Jean suddenly yelled, interrupting them all. 

“Well yeah..” Reiner murmured.

Bertholdt nodded quietly.

“Yeah.” Annie agreed. 

“Pretty much.” Connie said. 

“Yep.” Ymir joined in. 

“Mhm.” Sasha mumbled with a sly smile. 

“Sorry..” Christa apologized. 

“Duh.” Mikasa said, rolling her eyes.

“It was pretty obvious.” Armin agreed, looking apologetic.

“Actually we all planned on getting you to make out tonight, one way or another.” Eren finally admitted. 

When they were finally done, Jean stared at them, before he deadpanned. “Wow ok!” 

He and Marco looked at each other in disbelief for a while, before Marco laughed lightly and shrugged with a light blush in his cheeks. 

“Well I guess it’s official then.” He chuckled and leaned in to kiss Jean softly once more. 

Forgetting all about the game of truth or dare, everyone started congratulating them, some joking about when they were getting married or other things. So they were out… They were officially a couple and it felt both amazingly good and a little scary at the same time, but when they held each other’s hand and quietly exchanged a look, they both knew that it would be ok as long as they had each other.  
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

18 years old

Jean and Marco

“Ouch! Jean, are you sure this is a good idea?” 

“Come on Marco, we’re almost there!” 

“What if we fall down?!”

“We won’t, don’t worry!”

“Ugh you’re so stubborn..” 

The two of them were climbing the oak tree that had grown so big, they could jump onto the ceiling of their houses from it. Jean stepped out on a branch that was bending dangerously beneath him and then quickly jumped onto the ceiling of his house. Marco however was a little less certain and hesitated as he stepped onto the branch.

“Jean, I don’t know about this..” 

“You’ll be fine! Just jump into my arms, I got you.” Jean said and spread his arms open to catch him.

Marco took a deep breath, before he jumped from the branch and landed right in Jean’s arms. He exhaled in relief and looked up into Jean’s golden eyes. 

“See? I caught you.” He said with a warm smile and once again, Marco felt his heart melt in his chest. 

They moved to the center of the roof and lay down on their backs and for the first time that evening, Marco noticed how bright the stars were. 

“Wow.. you can see them so much clearer…” He muttered to himself.

“That’s the idea!” Jean chuckled and then pulled something out of his pocket. “I got this.”   
When Marco glanced to what he was holding he raised an eyebrow and looked at him questionably. There in his hand was a pretty big joint of weed.

“You smoke pot now?” 

“Yeah, I tried it a while back. I only do it once in a while though. What.. are you to chickenshit to try?” Jean said with that annoyingly smug smirk and wiggled his eyebrows. He was a bit surprised and maybe a little disappointed that Jean had tried smoking weed without telling him, but when he called him a chickenshit he puffed up his cheeks slightly.

“Give me that!” He muttered and took the joint from him. Jean just chuckled and pulled out a lighter to light it for him. So Marco pressed it to his lips prepared himself for a moment and then took a huge drag… only to break into a wild coughing fit. He coughed so much he choked and thought he was going to cough up his lungs. Jean couldn’t help but laugh and patted him on the back until he finally recovered and scowled at him with red, teary eyes and a heaving chest.

“Sorry!” Jean defended, holding up his hands. “I’m sorry for laughing, I just.. I couldn’t help it. Come on, it was a little funny!” 

“Ok fine, maybe it was a little funny.” Marco admitted and rolled his eyes. 

“You just breathed in too much at once.” Jean explained and then took the joint from him. “Here..” He inhaled some smoke, then took Marco’s chin only to press their lips together and push the smoke into his mouth. This time he actually managed to get the smoke down in his lungs without coughing, but he didn’t really feel that different. Jean explained that it usually took some time for it to work the first time, and he was right, because after the third time he felt it. It wasn’t as strong a feeling as he had expected though. He just felt sort of relaxed and like he was slightly tipsy. 

When they had shared and smoked the whole thing, they both lay back on the roof and looked up to the starry night sky. They were holding hands in the middle of them, fingers entwined in each other and Marco used is free hand to point out different constellations. After a while though, he ran out of the ones he knew and started making up bullshit, but Jean saw through it. So they ended up laying there in silence, watching the sky in amazement, until Jean spoke:

“Hey Marco.. Have you ever thought about how freckles are like… skin stars?” 

Marco laughed. “Pfff! Jean, you’re being stupid.” 

“No, but really!” His boyfriend leaned over and gently traced a finger over his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. 

“See here? They’re like mini galaxies in your face.” 

“Wow.” Marco deadpanned. “That’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me.” 

“Really??” He lit up like a kid who got praised by his dad. 

“No.” Marco chuckled and flicked his forehead lightly, causing Jean to pout. 

“But I appreciate that you like my freckles though.” 

That was all it took to make Jean grin like an idiot again and he smooched Marco’s lips with the sloppiest kiss ever, which made him giggle a little. Both high as balls, with red eyes and goofy grins, they lay back on the roof and watched the stars in silence for a while. After a while Jean started bragging about the constellations he knew, some of which Marco knew was bullshit, but he was so cute, that he couldn’t tell him. Then he started thinking… about the two of them. About how much he loved this stupid idiot who made him climb onto rooftops and get high. What would happen to them in the future? Most couples either broke up or grew apart after high school right? Involuntary, Marco let out a heavy sigh and Jean looked at him with a small frown. 

“What are you thinking about, babe?” 

“I was just... thinking about us.” 

Jean tensed up considerably at that and it took him a couple of seconds to answer. 

“What about us..?” 

“Just… What do you think will happen to us after high school? Do you think we’ll… still be together?” 

To that, Jean suddenly grinned like he found it amusing and kissed his cheek. “Of course we will, silly!” 

“But… we’re going separate ways…” 

“No we’re not.” 

Ok, now he was confused. Marco looked at him with one raised eyebrow and tilted his head slightly. “Wait what?” 

“Oh shit.” Jean blushed slightly and sat up and Marco followed him, so they would be at eye level. 

“Well uh.. I kinda wanted it to be a surprise, but… I got into the same college as you, Marco.” 

Marco’s big, brown eyes widened and he blinked several times. His heart soared, but he was so happy that he didn’t know what to do with himself, so he just kind of sat there, staring at his gorgeous, perfect boyfriend with his mouth slightly open. 

“C-come on man, say something..” Jean muttered looking incredibly nervous and finally Marco grinned wide and threw his arms around his neck in a hug. 

“That’s so great, Jean!” 

“Oh my god, you scared me for a second there!” 

Marco started laughing and then pulled back so he could cup his face and kiss him sweetly. 

“Sorry! I’m just so happy that we’ll be together.”

Jean grinned and kissed him back. 

“I’m not leaving you just yet, babe. In fact I plan on staying as long as you’ll have me.” 

“Probably forever then.” 

Everyone said that high school love didn’t last. That it was a silly fantasy for kids who didn’t know better. But why couldn’t it? If we have one soul mate in the world that you would do everything for, what said that you couldn’t meet them at any age? 

Jean and Marco had loved each other in various ways their whole life. 

Anyone who said their love wasn’t real could go fuck themselves.


End file.
